Conventional taps are fabricated from brass or similar non-corrosive material and include a tap body having a threaded mounting spigot at one end and a stuffing box at the other end. Suitably engaged, by means of a relatively course thread, with the interior of the tap body is a tap spindle which is screwed into the tap body by passing the shaft of the tap spindle through the mounting spigot and through the stuffing box before engaging the threaded exterior of the tap spindle with the threaded interior of the tap body.
After this installation has been completed, the stuffing box (which contains compressible material) is screwed further towards the tap body so as to compress the compressible material against the shaft of the spindle. This provides the desired watertight seal between the interior of the tap body and the shaft of the spindle.
The foregoing arrangement has been in use for many years and provides many advantages, particularly in terms of strength and durability. However, the arrangement suffers from a number of disadvantages, the most important of which is that the stuffing box begins to leak progressively over the years and if not re-tightened results in water moving up the shaft of the tap spindle when the tap is open. This can lead to significant deterioration and corrosion of other components, for example mounting boards adjacent the sink into which the tap is positioned, and so on.
In addition, as the cost of metal, brass in particular, increases, so the cost of the tap increases. If the tap body could be made predominantly of plastics material, then a substantial saving in both weight and cost could be achieved.
A search conducted after the priority date located U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,338 assigned to Waltec, Inc. of Canada and U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,031 assigned to Hans Grohe GmbH & Co. KG of Germany.
Both of these documents disclose tap body assemblies comprising metal components and suffer the disadvantages described above.
The present invention is directed towards the above ends with a view to substantially reducing the above disadvantages and/or substantially achieving the above advantages.